The supporters and endorsers of Sheldon Silver's bid to retain his seat, and therefore the Speaker's chair, generally maintain that we may finally have the opportunity to pass major bills such on marriage equality, education finance reform, rent regulation, and so on. The underlying threat is that if Silver loses then those bills won't pass.

How's that again?

Suppose, just for the fun of it, that lightning strikes, the earth shakes, and Silver loses. The immediate result would be a mad scramble for leadership in the Assembly, and the only guarantee is that nobody knows who would win. Well, almost the only guarantee -- for whoever wins will have to promise to push forward exactly those reforms that Silver's supporters are talking about.  read more »

The big talked-about piece of the day, even at this early hour, is clearly The New York Times depiction of what it calls Détente in Albany, between a mild-mannered Governor Paterson and an ebullient Joe Bruno.

The shift is noticeable in many ways. Mr. Paterson waved through pork-barrel spending bills that provided $350 million apiece to Mr. Bruno’s Senate and to Assembly Democrats. Mr. Paterson’s predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, held up the legislation for months. Mr. Paterson has also abandoned Mr. Spitzer’s insistence that Republicans agree to legislation limiting campaign contributions.

He consults regularly with Mr. Bruno, whom Mr. Spitzer had stopped speaking to altogether, visiting his office to chat about legislation and talking on the telephone with him several times a week.

In doing so, Mr. Paterson has changed the tone in the capital from one of combat and animosity to one that is joshing and affectionate, a marked shift from Mr. Spitzer’s rough-and-tumble approach in trying to overhaul one of the nation’s most reform-resistant statehouses.

That's roughly as naked a description of Senate republicans' raison d'être as you're ever likely to encounter in a family newspaper. Give them their member items, and you'll be surprised how quickly the rancor quiets down.  read more »

Albany is the site of one of this nation's most dysfunctional state legislatures. It is well known for getting nothing done. This is one thing that cannot be completely blamed on the Republicans because Democrats like Shelly Silver are just as do-nothing as the Republicans. Winning the State Senate, and thus getting rid of the worst obstructionist, Joe Bruno, is a critical part of reforming Albany...and one I focus on at our NY State Act Blue Site, helping defend Andrea Stewart-Cousins' seat and supporting Jimmy Dahroug and Jim Gennaro in their State Senate bids. But there is more to reforming Albany than just electing more Democrats. We also have to defeat those Democrats who have become part of Albany dysfunction.  read more »

This one speaks for itself. New York Magazine:

Ask [Joe Bruno] about his legacy, and he’ll point to his mastery of the pork process. “Take a look around Albany. Take a look around Troy. Take a look at the airport. Do you think that airport would be there if I wasn’t the leader?” he says. “You know how the airport got there? We’re trying to close the budget and Shelly wouldn’t close. So Pataki says, ‘What’s it take to close?’ Shelly says, ‘I need a library in Brooklyn.’ ‘How much?’ Shelly says, ‘$65 million.’ Pataki says, ‘Well, that’s all right.’ It was a $100 billion budget. So I said, ‘It’s not okay with me. I don’t have a single member in Brooklyn.’ ‘So what do you need?’ ‘I need $65 million for the airport.’ Pataki says, ‘Shelly, do you care?’ ‘No, I don’t care, as long as I get my library.’ Pataki says, ‘Good. Done.’ ”

Not much to add, is there?

Fifteen months ago, Eliot Spitzer came to Albany riding a wave of popular discontent with the ossified state capital. Day One brought us, in the all-too-brief honeymoon, such startling novelties as an on-time budget, workers comp reform, more equitable educational financing.

Such achievements as Eliot managed to notch on his belt were won in the face of the Western hemisphere's best argument for term limits, the Augean stables of the New York State legislature. The otherwise observably inert mass of that body threw itself in the path of the self-proclaimed steamroller, and the unstoppable force hit the immovable object.

With Tuesday's special election results - Democrat Darrel Aubertine was elected to the State Senate in a district generically only slightly more favorable to Democrats than North Dakota - there is movement again. City Room quotes Wayne Barrett of the Voice:

“I think yesterday’s results were in some respect a referendum on the first year,” he said. “And I think it calls for sober and objective analysis on my part, so let me say: ‘Hallelujah! Free at last We’re almost free at last!’”

Heh. So now what?  read more »